This was Sri Lanka's first official Test
tour outside the Indian sub-continent. It was preceded in the autumn of 1982
by a relatively unsuccessful 'A' team visit to Zimbabwe, for which Warnapura,
Perera, Ajit de Silva and Ranasinghe were omitted from the tour group. In
response they signed up for the clandestine unofficial tour of South Africa, then excluded from international
cricket by its apartheid poilicies, and Goonetillake withdrew from the
official team to Zimbabwe
to join the rebel players.

Subsequently, the team for New
Zealand was chosen without any of the sixteen 'rebel'
players who had contracted to play in South Africa. The 'Arosa' Sri
Lankan touring team flew in secrecy from Colombo
to Hong Kong and from there to Johannesburg.
The team won its first match in South Africa but lost all the
rest. The South African Cricket Union alleged that Mendis, Dias and D S de
Silva would have reinforced the team but they demanded too high a payment,
which they denied. Mendis and Dias said they considered joining the team
originally but declined after discussions with their families and cricket
officials, while Somachandra de Silva said he never knew about the rebel team
until their tour had started.

Not only did the official Sri Lankan Test touring
side to Australia and New Zealand
miss the rebel players' experience. It also suffered badly from injuries, and
shortly after arriving from the warm-up in Australia,
the two key batsmen Mendis and Dias were injured and unable to play, so DS de
Silva had to deputise as captain most of the time in New Zealand.

Duleep Mendis had broken a finger against Canterbury in the first match;Roy Dias suffered a thumb injury in New
Plymouth;and de Mel injured his back
muscles in the first one-day match at Dunedin
also suffering an arm injury.All three
of them missed the two Test matches against New Zealand.

The tourists' playing kit was so poor that Symonds
Sports of Sydney presented the team with $A42,000 worth of new equipment.

Unavailable:Presumably, Arjuna Ranatunga;and all sixteen members of the 'Arosa' Sri
Lankan team (see below).

Tour Party Announced :January 1983.

Prasanna Chulaka ? Jayantha?
Amerasinghe
was originally chosen but Susil
Fernando took his place.

Time between selection and departure from Sri Lanka

x days

(January to depart)

Travel

ColomboQMelbourne

The team flew from Colombo and arrived in Melbourne

1st match3 Feb 1983

To New Zealand 17 February

Time spent in Australiax
days(arrival
- 17 February)

Time spent in New
Zealand

x
days (17 February - 20? March)

On-tour
selection panel

Reinforcements

There were no reinforcements, despite Duleep Mendis
breaking a finger against Canterbury in the
first match in New Zealand;
Roy Dias suffering a thumb injury in New Plymouth; and de Mel injuring his
back muscles in the first one-day match at Dunedin and suffering an arm injury.All three of them missed the two Test
matches against New
Zealand.

H H Devapriya was team manager;Bandula Warnapura was captain; Tony Opatha
was vice-captain and part-organiser; Arosastands for Anthony Ralph Opatha South Africa.

A 25 year-long ban was imposed by the Sri Lankan
board, subsequently lifted in early 1990.

Postscript

In July 1983 the long-running civil war began. A
campaign of harassment by Sinhala-dominated interests against Tamils in the
south of the island had the effect of strengthening support for the militant
LTTE forces which made domestic tournament cricket in the north an
impossibility.